This year my side decided we would fore-go the gifts, aside from Thing1 and Thing2 and go on a trip. We have been trying to do this for YEARS. Finally, I took the bull by the horns and started getting the ball rolling early November. I researched, planned and booked/reserved several locations. No flying by the seat of our pants here. :)
Enjoy the pages. I know I do.
Below is a few photos from the Hallmark museum we toured while we waited to get into Kaleidoscope factory. The adults enjoyed this part, but the kids were a tad bored.
Kaleidoscope is a free area at Crown Center that allows kids to go in for 45 minutes and make crafts/card/ etc with leftover Hallmark card supplies. My little art-tist loved it. MW just loved to run around. That kid is like a border collie. If he doesn't have cattle to herd, he has way too much pent up energy to burn off. HA!
It was a whirlwind 2 day trip. So I packed it in. I made reservation at Legoland at 1p. We easily spent 2.5 hours there taking in all the fun. There were a couple rides and a play place that kept MW and Lo, and maybe mommy and Auntie Meg entertained for quite sometime.
The kids even got to experience their first 3D/4D movie. They were so funny reaching out and trying to grab the objects that flew toward them. We even got a bit wet in the end, thus making it 4D.
Us girls had fun at the lego table, with our sorely lacking imagination.
After we finished at LegoLand and had a snack...when you travel with my dad snacks are a must at least every hour. ;) We headed for our hotel. This was the most fun to the kids. HA! We had adjoining rooms, which added to the fun for the kids running between rooms. Of course the kids couldn't be left gift-less...All MW wanted was that How to Train Your Dragon bath toy. His face says it all. Lo was thrilled with AG doll clothes.
We then quickly headed back out to grab dinner and make our 7p reservations with KC carriages. A Carriage ride through the Plaza. Unfortunately, due to early bad weather conditions the cancelled and neglected to make contact with me. Let me say we all were disappointed, especially the kids. I was mostly frustrated because of their refund policy...there isn't one. They like to put the risk on the costumer and if THEY decide not to run you get a gift card {like who is going to use that when they don't live there??!} or re-schedule...which didn't seem like a possibility. Once I finally got in contact with her, instead of fighting about it we decided to extend the trip a bit and re-schedule to the first ride the next night. I am so glad we did, just to do it, but I would NOT recommend them to anyone, mostly because I don't like people who do poor business.
Moving on...we decided to just walk the plaza that first night. Daddy found a Moosejaw store and if you know my husband, you know how much he loves Moosejaw. Not because he is a mountaineer, but because he thrives on the different.
I was blessed with the gift a of bed to myself. MW slept with grammy and Lo slept with daddy. Bliss.
Day2.
Once we got around we headed to SeaLife aquarium. I wish I would have pre-purchased tickets, just out of savings reasons. But it was amazing. Definitely recommend it.
All mommy wanted to do was see IKEA. It just seems like there is so much hype you have to go in. I started to feel a little claustrophobic, like I would never get out. I did think it was neat and would have like to actually shop, but when you have 2 kids, 2 dads and a time crunch shopping is a bit out of the question. We also swung by the AG doll store, mostly again to just see it. Lo really loved looking at all the great expensive things there...I mean really it's a doll and you get all that stuff at Target for a 1/3 of the price.
Finally we had an early dinner at Cheesecake Factory on the Plaza and zoomed off to make our 5p reservation for the carriage ride. It was nice to end the trip on the carriage. We then loaded up and drove home. It was a great trip. So much fun and the best present. Sure a sweater is nice, but memories are so much better.
Merry Christmas Family!!
Part 4 will conclude Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
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